The Sticky Duckling
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: The day before her nineteenth birthday, Rapunzel heads with Eugene, Pascal and Maximus over to the Snuggly Duckling where the Pub Thugs are throwing her a party. An accident with food a food fight starts.


**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Tangled. I'd like to interrupt your previously scheduled programming (aka The Disney Games) to tell y'all something. I published the first chapter of my first story on FanFiction (Pascal's Point of View, if y'all would like to check it out if you haven't read it) one year and one day ago. I just realized today or I would have published something special yesterday.  
**

**Seeing as my first story was Tangled, I figured it would be poetic to have this story be a Tangled one. It's also a food fight one. :). Read on, fellas! ALLONS-Y!  
**

It was a fine day in April in Corona. The forest was growing; their leaves and flowers were beginning to pop up all over the place. Everything was mostly quiet, like it was supposed to be on a quiet spring day.

Things took a turn for the louder when two horses came pounding down the road leading to a crooked little pub. One horse, white with blond hair, was wearing a saddle and was trying to keep things bumpy for the ex-thief on his back (for even though the two were friends, things were always a bit teasing between them), making the ride an aching one for Eugene.

Next to him, riding a dark brown horse, was the princess of Corona, wearing a cheery white smile and her old purple dress that contrasted nicely with her roughly cut, dark brown hair. Rapunzel kept her hands on the reins of her calm horse, Pascal on her shoulder, looking a bit sick despite the smooth ride.

"Are you all right, Pascal?" Rapunzel asked him when she turned her head slightly as they came to a straight part of the road.

His cheeks bulged as he kept one paw on Rapunzel's neck and the other on his chest. He looked bad, but as he nodded, his cheeks bulged even more.

Rapunzel looked concerned as she turned to look on to the road, saying, "Hey, Eugene, how much longer until the Snuggly Duckling? Pascal's not feeling well."

"PASCAL'S not feeling well?" Eugene said as she rode faster to keep up with him. Maximus was grinning his head off while Eugene smacked his broad neck, which barely hurt the horse at all.

"Yes, he isn't," said Rapunzel. "We'd best hurry."

"We'll be there in a minute, Blondie," said Eugene, straightening enough to look at her. She looked quite small and petite and adorable sitting calmly on her horse, Pascal looking like he might vomit onto her dress.

Rapunzel smiled. They had been invited to a birthday party in her honor, and so had her parents. They would be coming along soon, for they had to do some duties (they were king and queen, after all) but they would be there. Tomorrow was her actual birthday when there would be the big festival, celebrating having their princess back for fifty-two weeks.

Yes, it had been almost a year since . . . . everything.

It seemed like yesterday to Rapunzel when she and Eugene had first come to the Snuggling Duckling. Back then, she had been a naive almost eighteen-year-old with practically no knowledge of the world around her (except for a lot of plants. She knew what a lot of them were). She had had blonde hair back then, and had been ordering Eugene around with a frying pan. She almost let go of her reins to put a hand over her mouth to cover her laugh at the memory.

She snuck a look at Eugene, who was trying to swat Max's hair out of his face. She grinned and thought just how far they had come.

Eugene looked back at her just then and asked, "What're you thinking, Blondie?"

"Remember the first time you took me to the Snuggly Duckling?" she asked him as they came around to a curve and slowed down.

"Yeah," he smiled. "Still smells like the color brown a year later."

Rapunzel smiled and they looked ahead to see that to their left was their destination: the darling little pub known as the Snuggly Duckling. It still looked the same as it did the year before. Crooked shutters, a couple of horses tied to a post, the entire building leaning as the large tree grew out of it.

"We sure choose the weirdest places to hang out," said Eugene, and Rapunzel let out a giggle, and he smirked as they started their horses slowly down the path leading to the Snuggly Duckling.

Once they were near the hitching post, Eugene leapt off of Maximus, threw him a look, and helped Rapunzel down from her horse. Pascal looked considerably better as Eugene tied the horse's reins to the hitching post before turning to Rapunzel.

"Shall we, Blondie?" he asked.

"Yes, _Flynn_," she smiled as he slipped his arm around hers, hooking their arms together.

"Let's not get me arrested today, okay?" he asked as they approached the door.

"But Father said that you were pardoned . . . ." Rapunzel said, looking concerned until she saw the look on his face. "Eugene!"

He laughed and opened the door to the Snuggly Duckling, and they stepped in, and, just like last year, all the heads in the pub turned to them.

"Happy birthday!" all the Pub Thugs yelled, holding up their mugs (which appeared to be filled with punch) as they toasted each other, sending red droplets all over the pub floor. Cupid walked around, looking a bit tipsy, saying, "Congratulations!" before he fell onto his stomach, a soft smile on his face as he began to snore.

"That's kind of gross," said Eugene, but Rapunzel gave him a look and said, "Eugene. . . ."

"Sorry, Blondie," said Eugene, and the two hurried into the pub, Maximus coming in behind them. All the thugs hurried to Rapunzel, bowing respectfully and wishing her a happy birthday. Rapunzel smiled her brilliant smile and thanked each one of them, giving them side hugs with her right arm while keeping her left arm firmly around Eugene's firm, protective right one.

Once everyone was done and dispersed, Atilla approached them, offering them each a mug, Rapunzel's considerably smaller so it would fit in her hands. She took hers and the baker said, "Happy birthday, Your Highness!"

"Thank you, Atilla," Rapunzel said pleasantly, "we'll be seeing you at the festival tomorrow?"

"Yep. The lads and I've been making our own lanterns to send off," said Atilla before he hurried to do his duties by the bar.

Rapunzel nodded and Eugene suddenly got carried off by Vladimir, sending Rapunzel a pleading look. She just giggled as Vladimir began to show him his unicorn collection.

Rapunzel put a palm up to her shoulder and Pascal crawled onto it, looking vastly better than he had on the ride over.

"What do you want to do?" she asked him. The chameleon looked around and suddenly his eyes grew wide as he rubbed his tummy and pointed ahead of them, where on the bar was a dessert buffet.

Rapunzel smiled, knowing how much Pascal liked food, and took him to it.

There was cream puffs and tortes and fresh fruit and tarts and chocolate chip cookies and raspberry cookies and sugar cookies all dressed up in purple and gold and cinnamon roll ups and lemon cookies and blueberry filled cookies and so many different kinds of cookies that Rapunzel couldn't name.

"Be careful," she said, for she knew that Pascal had a bit of a habit of overeating when there was an abundant amount of food. He nodded eagerly and she slipped him off of her palm down onto the bar.

Smiling as she saw him dive into pudding, she turned and looked to see that Hook Hand was busy at the piano and hurried over to him. She loved music and she loved listening to him play.

The stage was covered with chains and locks and such and Ted, the young lad who played the accordion, was sitting in his corner, playing along to Hook Hand's piano music, which was a lively melody, no doubt made specifically for the lively party.

"That's a very pretty song," she said as she approached the stage. Ted looked up from his instrument but did not stop playing and Hook Hand looked up from his piano and a toothy grin came onto his face.

"Princess! Happy birthday!" he said.

"Thank you, Hook Hand," Rapunzel said as she took a seat on the stage, the seat she had taken the first time she had heard him play. "What are you playing? Mozart?"

"Mozart? Nah," said Hook Hand, turning away for a moment to see the page as he turned it. "I made this for you," he said, turning back to look at her.

"For me?" asked Rapunzel. She smiled even more brilliantly. No one had ever made a piece of music just for her before. It was nice to have someone put the time into writing music for her.

"Yeah. It IS your birthday, after all," pointed out Hook Hand with a smile as his fingers flew down the keys.

Rapunzel smiled and listened to the music for a few minutes before Eugene came tripping over to her.

"Remind me to never tell Vladimir that he has a nice unicorn figurine," he said, one leg on the stage, bent, while the other stood on the floor. He leaned to her, one elbow on his knee and said, "'Cause the next time he'll think I've shown in interest in everything unicorn and show me his collection."

"Okay," smiled Rapunzel.

Eugene nodded and looked around before he turned to her. "Having a good time, Blondie?"

"Yes. Everything's amazing," said Rapunzel, looking around the pub. Her green eyes took in everything, and she just now noticed the decorations. There was a purple banner strung across the banister with a big yellow sun in it. There was lantern candles that didn't float all over the place but stood on nearly every flat, elevated surface, all pinks and purples and golds.

The whole place looked lighter, not so dark, and it set a cheery, festive mood about the air.

"The decorations are _amazing_," she breathed.

"Sure are, Blondie," said Eugene quietly, looking at her. "They're really nice."

Rapunzel smiled and looked up to him, saying, "Should we find Pascal?"

"Sure," he said, "let's make sure he doesn't get trampled."

"Eugene," Rapunzel said, raising an eyebrow. He smiled and offered her a hand and helped her up when suddenly behind them they heard a great noise. Their heads snapped to the source of the noise. Which was by the bar.

Amongst the dessert plates and trays, Pascal shirked against a bowl of custard, his little body shaking as his brown eyes widened, looking toward the sound of the noise, which rose up. Rapunzel gasped loudly when she saw that Atilla was covered in chocolate pudding and a bowl.

Everyone looked on, shocked, at Atilla's chocolate pudding covered appearance, when suddenly Vladimir let out a loud laugh. Atilla did look very funny, very funny indeed, with his helmet dripping with food, the bowl sliding off onto the floor.

Atilla, though his frown was not visible, did not speak to let show his anger as he looked about the bar and grabbed a platter of floating islands (meringues in sauce) and with an expert hand, let loose the dessert that smacked Vladimir straight in the face. The contents of the platter dripped, showing a very angry Vladimir and a showered-in-the-meringues-that-dripped-off-of-the-giant's-face Big Nose, whose girlfriend tried to hide a smile from.

Vladimir immediately marched to the dessert bar and, forgive the cliche, all hell broke loose.

Food began to fly everywhere, Vladimir roaring, whether it was a good-natured laugh or an angry war cry, no one could really tell. Pub Thugs, yelling excitedly, threw themselves over the counter, squashing the desserts, as they made their way to the back of the bar. Once behind, they turned and began to throw desserts at those who weren't behind the counter.

Several thugs were on the top hallway, sending food down from the banister. Several were on the floor, taking the food that was on the walls and sending it back toward those at the bar.

Ted crouched in a corner, hopeful that he'd avoid getting smacked with a creamy pie. Hook Hand flew into battle, his hook hand flinging bananas out of the fruit bowl while he sent some of Atilla's cupcakes flying with his other hand.

Rapunzel and Eugene hung by the stage, both looking incredibly shocked. Pascal, shivering, was hiding beneath the piano. Maximus had flown into the heat of battle, spewing out apples like he was a cannon as stray bits of food flew onto him.

Rapunzel and Eugene had now crept behind the piano, both peeking out from both sides.

"This is just weird," said Eugene. "Though, I admit, it's not that not normal for them."

"What do we do?" asked Rapunzel, who wore a slight frown, making her freckles shine against her face.

Eugene shrugged. "I don't know," and they both drew back so their faces were hidden by the piano as cookies came sailing at them.

They were side by side now, behind the piano, which wasn't much cover.

"Now what?" asked Rapunzel, looking up at Eugene.

"Well," Eugene said, stroking his chin, "this is a good opportunity to throw food at Maximus."

"Eugene!" Rapunzel said in a giggly voice as she gently socked him in the arm.

"Hey!" he said in a mock hurt voice, rubbing his arm. "What was that for?"

"Don't threaten Max like that," she told him.

"Really?" he said, looking at her directly. Her nose was pert and her green eyes were lit up with excitement, despite her concern. "Well . . . we can . . . join them. . ."

"Eugene!" said Rapunzel. She watched him stand up slightly and then crossed her eyes to look at the tip of her nose, which he had smudged with whipped cream.

"You look kind of adorable, Blondie," Eugene said before he bolted, Rapunzel instantly standing up.

"Eugene!" she laughed as she came out from behind the piano. Ducking, she rushed to the dessert bar where she picked up a dish of raspberries that were smashed with mint and looked around expectantly for the ex-thief.

"Eugene," she whispered under her breath. She looked about, and finally noticed him hiding behind a barrel where the Snuggly Duckling goat was standing, the animal's eyes dull and his mouth chewing on something.

"Ha!" she yelled, and she threw the berries, which smeared his shirt.

"Blondie!" he yelled as she leapt over the bar, looking keenly over the top, her eyes and hair barely showing.

Rapunzel giggled as she moved back toward the back of the wall to avoid a flying bunch of torte. She found a rather appeasing pile of chocolate sauce, and taking a handful, she managed to get some on her dress fairly quickly as she drew to the bar.

She could see that Eugene was still in the same spot, trying to locate a bit of dessert, when she threw the sauce at him. It, unfortunately, did not hit him. It merely trailed down her arm and made a mess three feet in front of her.

Rapunzel began to wipe it off and managed to get a lot off of her skirt when a pile of pie got thrown into her dress. She looked up to see Eugene looking at her, grinning guiltily.

Thus the two ensued in their own sort of battle between them. Rapunzel kept a smile on her face as she ducked, twisted, whirled and threw, hitting Eugene five out of eight times. He did the same, and they were both very soon covered in sugar laden desserts.

Rapunzel was still by the bar when she had him against the front door. With a grin, she threw a cream pie at him, but, being Eugene and an ex-thief, he successfully ducked out of the way and backed up into the stairs just when the pie fell from the front door, smearing it, and the door opened.

Everyone stopped frowning instantly when they saw who it was who stepped in. It was the King and Queen of Corona, the King stepping in first.

Rapunzel gasped as her mother, Queen Catherine, stepped quietly into the pub, holding up her skirts as she ducked under her husband's arm.

The Queen looked about the pub with a firm, mutual look on her face. Her eyes finally came toward where Rapunzel was, and the princess ducked as the Queen said calmly, "Is it time for cake, then?"

Rapunzel wondered why her mother was saying that to her when she looked behind her to see that Atilla was bringing out Rapunzel's birthday cake, which had been hidden safely away in the pantry.

Atilla shrugged and everyone grew even more quiet as the Queen took a step forward, looking quietly around the pub before her eyes fell on Eugene, who was leaning against the stairs.

"So," he said weakly, "who wants a piece of cake?"

Rapunzel couldn't help but giggle at that.

**He he he he. Hopefully, all my food fight stories have a bit of variety in them, though I DO like the awkward endings. HE HE HE HE. **

**Hey, you guys, thanks for reading my stories and putting up with me for the last year and . . . . one day. 61 (now 62) stories is not a bad amount of stories to have. Thank you for reading, and please, let me know what you think!  
**


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